I always look forward to the Mets and Dodgers twice a year meetings. I've been a Mets fan for almost my entire life (there was a time I lost interest in baseball from 1990 to 1993), and in the 70s and very early 80s I also rooted for the Dodgers because my grandmother hated the Yanks. So in 1977, 1978 and 1981 the Reynolds household was very much in the Dodgers corner.
Mets vs. Dodgers also presents my colleague Mike an interesting dilemma, as I know that his blood still contains a bit of Dodger blue. I'm not sure who he roots for when these games come up (perhaps he'll let us know when he gets back from tour), by I know that my heart and mind reside with our guys from Queens.
Alas, our guys from Queens didn't look so hot during the first 4 innings (well, they sounded like they were having problems, as I listened on WFAN as I drove upstate). Victor Zambrano had his shittiest start of the year, causing the Shea faithful to boo viciously when he left the mound. And the Mets just couldn't decode the pitching of ex-Yank and surfer boy lookalike Jeff Weaver.
All of sudden--crack!--Doug "I Can Hit Home Runs" Mientkiewicz blasts a two run shot. The next inning--crack!--Carlos Beltran hits his own three run dinger. Those five runs weren't enough to complete the comeback, but almost coming back from a six run deficit is a good sign for a team that has not come back from three runs down all season.
Finally, some more words about WFAN's announcing team of Gary Cohen and Howie Rose. These guys really know how to entertain and inform without being "homers" like those jackasses that call the Yankees games on WCBS-AM. I heard almost all of Friday night's game in the car, and it was the perfect accompaniment to a long, traffic filled drive. My favorite comment of the night came when Rose brought up ex-Mets catcher Jason Phillips and his incredible lack of speed. Rose called Phillips "Sid Fernandez slow," to which Cohen replied, "What about Mo Vaughan?" After discussing the merits of both, Rose capped it off by saying of Vaughn, "What is he, Secretariat?"
Oh, I laughed.
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2 comments:
Gary Cohen and Howie Rose are the two best radio voices in the area, hands down. Cohen's descriptions and pacing are perfect, and Rose's sharp-witted insight is great. Rose was on the outs for a while, "banished" to just doing Islanders broadcasts, so I'm glad he's back.
Unfortuantely, Cohen just accepted the job to broadcast Met's games on the new Mets television network. Those of us who love his radio work are saddened by this, but the man has to move on to bigger and better things.
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